Music and religion in the nineteenth century

Here on earth, to be sure, the churches' attitudes have been more ambivalent. If music can aid devotion, it can also stir up lust and vice; too often the devil has the best tunes. The church fathers, associating musical instruments with dancing and 'immorality', actually banned their use in worship; the Reformers, condemning late medieval polyphony for distracting worshippers instead of edifying them, showed that church music itself had its dangers. While supporting and subsidizing music, the churches have often also been anxious to regulate it, to keep the 'handmaid' of religion in its place.